Trump applauds setback for Scottish wind farm

U.S. real-estate mogul Donald Trump is one step closer to winning a legal tussle with the Scottish government over the development of a wind farm off the coast of Aberdeenshire in the North Sea.

Earlier this week, the Formartine Area Committee of Aberdeenshire Council refused a proposal that would have located the wind farm substation in Blackdog, a community where Trump recently built Trump International Golf Links and plans to further develop the 2,000-acre links land north of Aberdeen.

“It was a big victory yesterday,” Trump said Wednesday from his Manhattan office. “We are now moving forward with the second golf course and the new clubhouse.”

The Scottish government had approved the 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in March 2013. It would not be a commercial wind farm but a testing center for offshore developers, likely leading eventually to larger wind farms.

In May, Trump launched a legal challenge against the Scottish government in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, challenging the 11-turbine EOWDC development.

Trump found allies among the same local residents who fought to keep his development from proceeding on the Menie Estate.

More than 60 of the 82 families who live in Blackdog, according to a petition by the community, opposed the construction of the substation in their area. With the decision by the committee, the project effectively is closed.

In a story in Glasgow’s Herald Scotland newspaper, Iain Todd, a spokesman for the EOWDC project partners, said: “We are extremely disappointed at the decision. We believe this a missed opportunity for the region and that we could have worked with Aberdeenshire Council to agree further conditions to progress the scheme. We will give careful consideration to the formal reasons for the decision before we decide our next steps.”

Trump was jubilant with the support of the committee and its decision, but is cautiously optimistic before pursuing any other projects on the property, other than those already planned.